A Matter Of The Heart

Brennan Manning illustrates this point in his work The Ragamuffin Gospel. In it, he writes, “A married woman in Atlanta with two small children told me recently she was certain that God was disappointed with her because she wasn’t ‘doing anything’ for Him. She told me she felt called to a soup kitchen ministry but struggled with leaving her children in someone else’s care. She was shocked when I told her the call was not from God but from her own ingrained legalism. Being a good mother wasn’t enough for her; in her mind, neither was it good enough for God” (Brennan Manning, The Ragamuffin Gospel [Colorado Springs, CO: Multnomah Books, 2005], 40). There is nothing wrong with what Martha is doing, but there is something very wrong with her heart. There is nothing wrong with Mary’s inactivity because there is something very right with her heart. Where is your heart oriented? Through the everyday act of meal preparation Jesus shows us that he desires our hearts to always be focused on him.